Media neutrality and Vietnamese war

When I was 10 in 1971, my father who was an avid reader and always abreast of current affairs , brought a book home on Ho Chi Minh. Obviously I, at that age, had nothing to do with the book except appreciating the cover which had picture of the gentleman leader of the Vietnamese War.

My father, at the dinner times used to tell us stories from his past and also about the current happenings in the world which we used to hugely like. That used to be fair dinner pastime for us siblings those days.

In this context , I recall one account he narrated about Vietnamese war and about journalists covering it on ground.

Referring to a photo published in those days in our morning newspaper which he was showing us, he made a mention of American journalists who were taking photographs during the war covering the bombings and also some atrocities committed by some of the US forces as also the harsh conditions US soldiers were getting subjected to there. My father explained how newspapers in USA are publishing the excesses being committed by their own men in Vietnam and also taking stance on futility of that war.

With all that tender mind, which I feel with surprise now, I could ask him how they were reporting against their own country. This perhaps was the distinction at that small age I could make because we were afresh and alive to somewhat and naturally so, jingoistic noises in public and on radio and media everyday due to ongoing tension with Pakistan over Bangladesh during the same period here ie 1970-71. We were even regularly lectured about personal safety and were trained to hide in bunkers and safe places in school and papa had window panes covered with carbon papers because of regular blackouts.

My father was quick to clarify on neutrality of the journalists reporting from Vietnam stating that the those who report on ground for the newspapers were expected and permitted to work and speak independently without being questioned on their allegiance. He even, I remember, told us that the journalists there are allowed to not stand if they want, at time of playing of national anthem of US. This was how neutrally newspapers and journalists used to function those days.

That was the time.

Somehow it stuck to my mind for rest of my life whenever I thought of the journalists and their conduct. That, they should have nonpartisan views and should even be nation neutral. Then only unbiased news without color of their personal opinion would be reported particularly for the global audience. But till recently only. 

Now most journalists at least in India think kowtowing to powers is their duty and their reports must have boundaries drawn by political exigencies of convenience, though they like us to accept it as their version of patriotism. 

That is the time.

बुर्का, हिजाब, नमाज़, हलाल, सिखों की पगड़ी

भारत की बेटियाँ इन समाजद्रोही बिगड़ैल मर्दों को सबक़ सिखा सकती हैं। औरतों को ड्रेस कोड सिखाते हैं और खुद निर्लज बटन खोल गलबंद बांधे अपने ही भगवान को बदनाम करते रास्ते में बहनों बेटियों को बेहूदगी से प्रताड़ित करते हैं। भगवान का नाम इस्तेमाल कर भगवान को भी तृसकृत करना चाहते हैं।

बुर्का सभी चाहेंगे कि ना रहे, ये दक़ियानूसी पुराना असामाजिक चलन माना जा सकता है। किंतु, हिजाब यूनफ़ॉर्म क्यों नहीं हो सकता? रंग तय कर लो। सिखों को पगड़ी की अनुमति हर संस्थान में है। बुर्का भी आज के वक्त के मुताबिक़ एक अस्वीकार्य रस्म हो सकती है , पर यदि कोई अपने निजी या असंस्थागत स्थान में पहनना चाहे तो रोका नहीं जा सकता। सिख जो आज चुप बैठे हैं कल उनका नम्बर आएगा, पगड़ी उनकी भी इन की निगाह से बचेगी नहीं। 

किसीने कहा कि आज हिजाब, कल नमाज़ के लिए स्थान माँगेंगे। क्यों नहीं माँग सकते? ये देना है या नहीं हम मिल बैठ के तय करेंगे। यही लोकतंत्र है। सबकी सुननी है। सबको सहूलियत दे सकें इसी लिए भारत देश का गठन एक संविधान के अंतर्गत किया।वरना ५६० देशों वाला स्वतंत्र सूबों का उप महाद्वीप रह जाते। 

बुर्का, हिजाब, नमाज़, हलाल, सिखों की पगड़ी ये सब अनिवार्य धार्मिक परम्पराएँ हैं।धर्म की बहुत सी मान्यताओं पे तर्क नहीं होता, कुछ मौलिक होती हैं । जब तक आस्था है चलेगा । सदियों से सब जानते हैं यह इनमें कुछ आज के संदर्भ में सामाजिक रूप में अस्वीकार्य हो सकती हैं। किंतु ये हमारे किसी हिंदू ग्रंथ में नहीं दर्ज है , ना ही ऐसी कोई परम्परा कहीं रही है कि भगवा गलबंद पहनना अनिवार्य हो या मास नहीं खा सकते या फिर मास हलाल का नहीं खा सकते। या जय श्रीराम बोलते रास्ते लगना है। हम लिबरल हिंदू धर्म के अनुयायी हैं, हो सकता है राम से बड़े हमारे लिए परशुराम हों। या हमारा ग्राम देवता हमें सुदूर के कृष्ण और हनुमान से ज़्यादा पूजनीय हो? हम क्या पहने ये भी निर्धारित नहीं है। किंतु जिनको उनके मत एवं आस्था के अनुसार ऐसी अनिवार्यता है, उसका आदर होना ही होगा। यही लोकतांत्रिक शासन है। 

हमने अपने ऑफ़िस में हवन पूजा सब देखा है, बिस्मिलाह करके कुछ शुरू हुआ हो कभी नहीं सुना। 'हिंदू अनडिवायडेड फ़ैमिली' (HUF) के नाम पे हमारा ही एक विशेष कर धनाढ्य व्यापारी वर्ग, खूब सुविधाएँ अर्जित करता है । और इन ही कारणों से, ये ही दक्षिणी विचारों के स्तंभ भी ज़ोरदार हैं। देखा जाय तो आरक्षण भी तो हिंदुओं के ही एक वर्ग को लाभित है। फिर क्यों उपेक्षित अनुभव करते हो, सब तो है ? 

एक दूसरे को आदर दो और एक दूसरे को सहो वरना देश के दुश्मन सीमाओं पे भीतर आने को आतुर हैं। उनसे भीड़ों। अपनी बेटियों को मत अपना बंधक बनाओ और ना ही निजी क़ानून लगाओ उनपे ।

Importing discounted crude from Russia

Ref: Interview on CNN with Mr Hardeep Puri 

https://youtu.be/YTqBcz3pTgA

No one can dictate India from where we buy our crude. Govt has clear and declared policy on this. All praise.   

India always followed an independent foreign policy  and that was not affected by political changes here. Whether Indira, Morarji, Rao , Vajpyee or Singhs they followed similar neutrality with leaning only required as per our genuine needs that too not compromising with fundamental principles of sovereignty. 

However diplomacy has cost and people have to bear it out in interest of nation. In this case, India decided to buy cheap oil from severely isolated dictatorship in war, with good reasoning that it needs to fulfil energy requirements of its 1.3 BILLION people, the point emphasised by minister in this interview as well. That’s great. We must support govt wholeheartedly. Every nation does that. 

European nations too never disagreed with this and have been themselves buying crude and gas from Russia. They are not doing it clandestinely. So no qualms. Govt must take care of its citizens. We too should be proud of such decisions of our govt. We should get cheap petrol at the pump. Are we getting? 

If we follow our sovereign independent policy it  should be solely for  welfare of people not for opening channel of business convenience for private refiners who are not even selling oil to Indians. All the cheap oil being brought from Russia with pretext of lessening burden on indian citizens should have been used to improve affordability of oil in these tough times, not for the gains of private players who use it to export refined oil and make money. 

There was hardly any underlining questioning by the CNN anchor in referred interview regarding as to why India is buying Russian crude. All Europe is doing it. All are proudly doing it for their citizens. The query of CNN here was actually different. 

There is twist, in our case which the anchor cleverly made Minister admit.  Though it all appears fantastic eloquence pleasing to those who failed to see through the real game, he actually conceded to her. 

Here it is, while we the citizens have been told that govt is buying oil from Russia for benefit of our 1.3 Billion people, though the fact is large part of the crude is being picked by private refiners who are mainly export units and primarily sell refined petrol and diesel made out of this Russian discounted crude to other countries which could possibly be disregard to expected international norms. That makes it look like a business proposition benefiting of some private companies indirectly getting aided by Govt’s diplomatic helping hand. It could be an avoidable corollary of the decision but it is perhaps what is happening.  

It appears that these private operators are getting hugely discounted crude at diplomatic cost to indian citizens and making money out if it by exporting it. Public may only be getting limited benefit of the out of this deal.  Minister on being questioned on this by the anchor says it is done by private players!! Govt is not doing it. Then why we had been proudly told that govt is buying crude from Russia for Indian people. This is not just admittance of the fact but also revelation that Indians are not getting all the benefit of this cheap oil. 

I think anchor did her job and Minister could not resist falling for it. 

Recession and resilient India

A lot is being said to rationalise argument against falling rupee and hyperinflation. It’s being argued that India is doing marvellously better than other economies which are reeling under onslaught of inflation and are receding towards recession if not already into it. India is resilient and recession has not touched it. Argument is of course also double edged honed to shower praise on current leadership which is, as they assume, making India stand stronger and differently abled. 

It’s flawed argument. The present financial status of the country is weak as reflected not just from falling value of rupee, but flight of foreign investment out of the country. Later can be checked from daily statistics one observes on stock market public data available everyday . This is going to become harsher after FED raised interests. Our reserves would continue to fall. 

The cost of routine consumption for commoners has skyrocketed already for past two three years. The cost of living is expansive even for those who get handsome salaries. The poor who could barely afford one meal are suffering because of nutritional deficit as healthy food becomes out of bound. The unemployment is at all time high and increasing with million odd aspirants joining this number every year. With current economic downturn, overall wealth of the country to support wholesome universal livelihood has severely weakened. 

Now coming back to our supposedly resilient economy vis a vis other nations particularly western nations, it is only to wishfully pat oneself for seeking political dividend with amplified narrative about quality of leadership which is making it happen. Let’s face it if global recession is around the corner we would be hit worse than many others. 

Forget about some individuals becoming superrich or size of economy becoming larger. These are nothing but  billboarding from data derived from macro and bulk measurements. These don’t include and  count status of 80 percent of poor and middle income citizens.  The narrative of great resilience falls flat knowing the we are already at lower end of developmental change which reaches a commoner. Comparatively a commoner  from say UK or US who is already at significant level higher in living standards vis a vis a similar denominator commoner from India, would be much less  impacted by recession.  Though statistically in terms of fall in growth parameters it could be larger fall for a westerner than for an Indian who would be actually hit severely by the recession but if only numbers proportionate to this fall are displayed, India would appear to be less impacted. Though that’s the fallacy. It is like value of percentage fall for a large unit is much bigger  than value of same percent fall for a smaller unit. 

Rogue mindes; phoney rebels ...

We need to be vigilant of those who wear garb of 'self stamped pillars of democracy, nation and social way of life they think is their religion' because it is they who find more opportunities to throw tantrums based on self declared emancipation from all social norms and controls, even if caught nakedly misguiding.

I remember a newspaper in eighties used to be distributed 'free' at Churchgate to hundreds of commuters crossing over to Asiatic side only to flame trouble with juicy news about tiff between then PM and the President. The end of parliamentary democracy was being pictured. For years ( not just days or weeks - 2-3 years ) it featured every day on front page news articles about its version of corruption at high places (a business house and PM were in the center). All these. news from very 'eminent award winning independent' senior journalist/editor and equally 'respected' finance scribe. The hot news, followed for years, could never be proven. However the same journalists (?) officially later revealed themselves to had been prominent members of a beneficiary political party...!!

So much for independence of media !!

( Years old draft was left unpublished)

Savarkar

 We have phrase in hindi on बंद मुट्ठी लाख की। 

It works. It creates mystery, makes a puzzle out of curiosity. Keeps opponents guessing and sometimes making them wary of an open confrontation. Many a times it makes enemy yield fearing unknown. 

Savarkar to a large extent used to be that enigma in public minds, now he has been put in glass casket by his followers letting opponents throw stones at. 

In zeal to raise stature of the gentleman, they created stories which were hard to believe and difficult to defend against available facts, and let these proliferate wide and far on wings of bulbuls of social media. They did more damage to the man who till recent past, used to be well known for his bravery and patriotism, of course due more for that close fist confining information like mystery,  than for supposed treachery and alignment to British cause, now people have starting attributing to him. Due to lack of provocation the opponents who till recently had been keeping mum and under reactive over the past of a well known leader of yore, mainly because speaking ill of a dead is not known to be taken well in our society, have now come out in open with swords brandishing over plethora of statements and historical events about him. 

It would be uncalled for loss of face for some and avoidable.

Youngsters trash me over age

Ye youngsters kya hain yaar !!

A friend of my young daughter condescendingly advises her to teach papa COMPUTER which would help me pass time!! 

For all what thru 8855, 8085, 8600,8088, 7074, op ams, Basic, Cobol, Fortran, cards decks, circuit and EM theories, soldering, bred-boards,  PCs, windows, Macintosh, assemblies, gaming, HTMLs, Javascripts, Javas, networkings, Microsoft certifications, Brainbench, personal domains, emails, nameservers, servers, Cname, clouds, routers, HP, ipaqs,  Compaq, Apple, ipods, iPads, iPhones, FB, Signal, Linkedin, twitter,  all turning gibberish and washed away in no time.

Adoring and accepting my all Devtaas

Perseverance of some idiots to stay afloat is admirable. They can change narratives on go and then join in huge number and do Denial of Service(DoD) attack with hundreds and thousands (or even Koti ?)followers rampaging over social media with one common single fake digital story mined at their dark cult servers.

I can count 100 plus Devtaas all Supreme ( means Koti as per these guys) and if I go on two three thousands can be easily done in a day, all same Koti kind. But count of these stupids stops at exact 33, a self defeatist moment.

For thousands of years no one could find what these idiots found in one strike like spot lottery jackpot and made some of my dear Devtaas like Parshuram, Tripureshwari, Hanuman, Renuka, useless!! Non Koti !! They are in fact bringing embarrassment to all us Hindus who have been always proud of all our Devtaas- thirty three or even more Koti ( Crore). 

Let's delve into some hyperbole in their own language which they may like. Don't take that serious. We always had rich powerful divine heritage that’s why we have been number one and ruled over universe with Devtaas at every corner of time space continuum. Who asked these anti-Hindus to feel ashamed of our Devtaas and create useless fake narrative to rationalise a supposed misunderstanding which never existed. I think self proclaimed custodians of our faith who have put honeyed beehive on my social media wall should complain about these to their concerned bosses.

Film Industry

For keeping nation together, uniformity and common sharing of purpose of existence is essential. Contribution of film industry for forging and strengthening of that commonality for India is not just noteworthy but is perhaps unsurpassed by many of socio-political groupings.

Even towards remastering and mass popularising of common language for nation, Hindi or Hindustani, film industry has tried to more aggressively contribute than any of the politico-bureaucratic backrooms which only complicated it to keep it beyond easy access of common people.

History or even religion could have never been able to mark such a strong imprint on citizenry’s mindsets recently as has been stamped by creativity and nation wide penetrating reach of the film industry.

Can't deny that some of most commonly popular gods of 20th-21st century like Saibaba or Santoshi Mata received wholehearted support of films to breach limits of localised popularity and go really global.

Recognition of that superior contribution of the film industry is fortunately well entrenched in every remote corner of India and manifests thru people’s overtly expressed love for films, songs and stars.

Downplaying or criticising film industry is unfortunately a street entertaining narrative, by those who are in perpetual denial of its popularity and usefulness. Regular calls for boycotting films is a representing signal for that frustration.

It is not that one can ignore numerous negative activities or observations which may ingress any creative field of mass following, large emploment and wealth creation though those remain outweighed by the numerous positives from this industry.

Withdrawal of Rail concessions: oldies and retirees deserve it

 

I am bigot of a kind. For me stopping senior citizen rail concession is appealingly apt decision particularly for the retired kind oldies. They deserve it. It feels good to my evil soul.

One can find some of most toxic bigotry laced, jingoistic, 24x7 protracted illogical debates on FB or whatsapp groups of this class. They are most vulnerable to get invitations from poisonous politically aligned mahaulla or school-college alumnus groups where they are continually tutored and retrained with lessons of fake history and rabid morality cooked up in juices of hatred culled from other equally poisonous WhatsApp groups or from the content created by malicious socio-political ideological cults. Most of this learning is served with dressing of religion which suits appetite of these oldies who have otherwise nothing important in hand to pass their time with.

There is whole dark metaverse created for such bigots where they virtually live and command other family and friends to join them in this abhorrent illusionary world. 

(With due apologies to balance few old fellows who are different. All others can take this with pinch of salt)

Nambi Narayan and Rocketry

Shri Nambi Narayan had been one of the important ( not top) sceintific executive in ISRO thirty years back when he was implicated in espionage case in 1992 by Kerala state police. But CBI after enquiry found that it was a false case. And gave clean chit to Nambi Narayan in 1995 after two years. K Karunakaran who was CM had to resign on pressure from Ak Antony faction on this episode. Now What happened with Nambi is unfortunate and Govts, courts and CBI took corrective actions later. But halla hu on India’s advancement in space technology going backwards with Nambi ‘sir’ not there to continue with ISRO is a absurd hyperbole. Thirty five years back he must have been one among score of scientists working on cryogenic engine which India ultimately succeeded. How can one person in middle level could  be projected to be so vitally critical to Indian space mission that ‘India went thirty years behind’. 

With all due respect to Nambi and his abilities and also to corrective measures by govt to restore his honour, he is being unnecessarily given that much credit as to practically demean a generation of able sceintific talent in ISRO which has steered us to this proud place we have in space technology. His case was solved in two years and a CM had to resign. If you refer news archives that time it was rival faction of congress led by Antony which stood for him and made congress CM resign not as much the opposition. 

For film it seems Nambi too has been roped in to put in promotional hand and he seem to enjoy it. Yes he was  wronged and police officers responsible are behind bars for that but that is it. Nambi can’t be, from being a middle level scientific officer to suddenly turned in to being something like father of Indian scape mission for satisfying present environment and for commercial success of a film.

Jaziah

Rules like Jaziah were created by brutal kings and emperors who also claimed to profess some religion as excuse to subjugate people. 

They would have created any other suitable rules or tools too, to  achieve the same objectives, had they not have this pre-sanctioned religious excuse up their sleeves. It was wolf and lamb story where come what may wolf would devour the lamb with any excuse, this has nothing to do with any religion or faith or race. 

Rulers of all kinds including Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Greeks, Roman, Chinese, Kushans, Huns, Parthians, Sakas, Vakahataka, Mauryas, Guptas,  Pallavas, Cholas, etc etc right up to Mughals, Dutch, Portuguese  and British; were all brutal and selfish when required, and had only objectives of enslaving every resident irrespective of the faiths or color or race, conquering other states and creating wealth and power for themselves and for their descendants. That’s it. They deployed every mean to achieve that. Religion has nothing to do with those methods, it was mean for that though. It could be jaziah for muslims or outright massacres as was done by British after 1857 or Ghazni 800 years Ashoka 2000 years back. Common muslims or Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddh  or atheists have nothing to do with that. 

Present generation of Hindus and Muslims or other citizens of different faiths have nothing to feel accountable for deeds or misdeeds,  of Mughals, Greeks , Christians, Chinese, Hun, Han, Kushan, Shung, Tormanam, SakadGupt, Kanishka, Khilji, Ranjeet Singh, Chandra Gupta, Pallava, Satvahanas, Shivaji , Nizams, Califs, Pandvas, or even British or any rulers or so even invader of distant past. 

Organisations of antisocial bigoted ideology play with future of our generation by releasing and unleashing their rabid foot soldiers on social media and other platforms to vitiate peaceful atmosphere of the country. 

Love everyone and follow good deeds as per acceptable moral standards of today. Otherwise we are already accelerating fast downhill to meet our annihilation under rogues sponsored supremacism unless checked. 

Religious leaders, gurus and preachers of our times

Religious leaders of all the faiths of our times, primarily study few books, mug up verses, offer meanings and one-sided interpretations to project themselves as meritorious, well read, wise, above average, and ordained to lead public on merit of those special learnings. These preachers use every modern tool of technology from television to social media for their pursuit of clouding minds en masse.   

They never have to delve into the knowledge world of rationale, logic or science to prove their worth because millions of fools are ready to adopt them as their leaders without a blink if right trap of illusion meshed with eloquence of deceit could be set forth. 

To impress and concretise obedience they throw texts and verses interspersed with ancient or alien languages like Sanskrit, Arabic, Aramaic or Latin which  they only understand. Many a times the verses are framed by them only and presented as divine words from scriptures which the hoi polloi never get to know  about due to conditioned hypnotism they are put perpetually into by use of mythological tales as tool to charm and confuse. 

These religious leaders can be heard mostly speaking about the importance of having teachers or gurus like them as essential means to achieve final knowledge about God and to gain His pleasure. They keep constantly reminding the followers that without them happiness could not be attained nor could God be pleased. The primary topic of their discourses would always be guru bhakti. 

They are known by variety of names in different faiths bur are having  same objective of subjugation of masses into their realm. This they enjoy as much as a royal enjoys control over his subjects. This achievement of gaining servility of masses is most potently high and more powerful then strongest of the intoxication, wealth, or any physical  or sensual pleasure. This is reality of our era. 

Like Pied Piper these otherwise low wit but hugely cunning thugs lead the crowd of faithfuls happily into their doom which too is created by these thugs as bliss. 

History is not somebody’s fictional story

History is not somebody’s fictional story; unless of course if it were to have been baptised by WhatsApp university which thousands of school and society dropouts whose lives run on the fuel of pseudo-bhakti, believe in this. 

History is product of illustrious genius in universities, research institutes and advance studies from the world over supported by strong established traditions of finding evidences with help of archeology, written documents, cross examining multiple resources, modern carbon dating and above all with global democratic institutionalised system of ruthless peer review.To establish a past event as historical happening sometimes it has taken decades or even century of research. History is not what is being taught on insta, Fb and youtube reels by trained rogues twisting reality. 

History is well researched documents supported with facts available as physical proofs like coins, tablets and original manuscripts. These researches have been made available for decades for global scrutiny and discussions before authorities took them as believable. If you happen to peep into what actually was happening in so called Indian peninsula say some 2000 years back you would be surprised and shocked that almost nothing as we know of this place today through folklore was existing anywhere. But the mythology, large part of which is constructed in very recent past, has gone so deep in minds of the people that they would not move an iota off their dreamy imagery of glorious illustrations of mythological divinity which had been mostly written ( or so called rewritten from oral narrations) during past couple of centuries after printing became popular. Some myths are as freshly minted as some 10-12 years back only. 

There are structures and phenomenons which appear miracles all over the world but no where people associate every strange happening to GOD, only we do it in India. Aurora Australis in India would have made thousand stories on Gods descending from skies. Nowhere it so happens except India. World over there are thousands of beautiful but apparently unexplainable natural phenomena like eg northern lights which for laity could be easily passed on as supernatural with a mythical story attached. But to appreciate people there look to science instead, not to Gods‬.

Ashoka

Let’s not put past big rulers into fake competition. Various achievements of many other rulers are attributed to Ashok to make him appear greatest. He wasn’t. 

There had been bigger kings and rulers of local roots or foreign or mixed descents over large period of documented history of subcontinent.  He too was an important ruler who inherited most of the territory he ruled. But is now respected for his quality of rule based on compassion. His story is interesting because of Kalinga atrocities and later his supposed penance by becoming a Bodh and helping take message of Budh dharma to south wards mainly. It will surprise that till as late as 1940s there was no ruler named and  singularly recognised as Ashoka in Indian history whom we could associate all those achievements which we now recognise as his. People before that period possibly never got to know that Ashoka existed. His existence as big king were documented  and established very recently historically speaking. Relax, he was important and now a popular king but was not as big as  vikramditya ,  Chandragupta, Samudragupta, Sakandagupta, or even Tormanam, Kanishka of foreign descents or many others of middle ages I am not naming here. 

धन्य हैं धर्म के ये सैनिक

छाती फूल जाती है अपने अनजान भाइयों को देख जो सड़कों पे सम्प्रदाय सम्मत गलबंद और परचम लिए और हथेलियों में कसे तलवार और ख़ंजर, निकल पड़ते हैं हमारे धर्म की विधर्मियों से हफ़ाजत करने की क़सम लिए हुए अपने सर पे।

मन करता है जानने को कि ये कौन हैं, किन आदर्श धर्मावलम्बियों की अद्भुत संतान हैं।कहाँ से आते हैं ये वीर जो पढ़ायी , नौकरी, रोज़मरा के आर्थिक जद्दोजहद , गृहस्थ कर्मकांड सभी कुछ त्याग कर इतनी कर्मठता से घोर तकलीफ़ एवं सम्भावित विलुप्तता में आहत हमारे अमर अजर धर्म की रक्षा का बीड़ा उठाए हैं। कैसे ये बहादुर समूह शक्ति का प्रदर्शन करते सरलता से दूसरों को धमकाते डराते हैं। 

पढ़ाई लिखायी तो त्याग ही दी होगी शायद, कभी विद्यालय जाना भी वरीयता में प्राथमिक न रहा होगा इनके लिए इस धर्मयुद्ध के चलते। नौकरी तो नहीं ही करते होंगे ज़रूर या घोर बेरोज़गारी के चलते नौकरी की अपेक्षा को भी धर्म के हित में बलिदान कर दिया होगा। वरना इतना वक़्त कैसे निकाल पाएँ इस महान कार्य के लिए। 

इनके अभिभावक माता पिता भी तो कितने खुले विचारों के है जो बच्चों को विधर्मियों से भिड़ाने खुला छोड़ रखे हैं। कितने उत्तम संस्कार हैं। धन्य हैं धर्म के ये सैनिक व इनके परिवार ।गर्व होता है। नतमस्तक हैं।

Ukraine and India

On breakup of Soviet Union, Russia had been thrown into an unexceptional recession with three digit inflation. It was due to support of market driven western financing that it came out and became what it assumes it is today, bullying its weaker nations in neighbourhood. But western dependence, using open finance regime, advancement in technological collaborations and ignoring global realities of our times, would set its nemesis. 

Indian interests are in being powerfully neutral but standing on principle of respecting and defending sovereignty of every nation. And at the same time not allowing any country create justification for invading other nations on flimsy grounds of one-sided prejudiced view of the history. Success and tolerating such actions can give reasons and excuse to our neighbours to attempt repeating similar misadventures over our border territory which they might dreamily assume as their own!

Ukraine is democratic country invaded by a dictator. Standing with him would severely dent our reputation. We will be considered week if we fail to take an expected stand from a largest democracy. We must at least condemn this illegitimate invasion of democratic nation and then decide on question to abstain if present policy so requires. Russia is inherently a week economy heavily dependent on outside support for everything including its military equipment which gets almost all its components from US, China, Korea and Taiwan. All these except China have imposed sanctions now and closing of financing imports would make it impossible for Russia to replenish and sustain economy and defence technology. China too would fall in line soon and support common actions being heavily integrated with global economy and reaping huge benefits out of that. That could lead us to isolation if we continue supporting Putin. Again, Putin is not Russia. Nor Russia a USSR. He would one day be consigned to history with Stalin and Hitler and Saddam.

Ukraine is not Iraq as some people illogically compare the present scenario. Iraq under Saddam was an autocratic nation led by another megalomaniac killing its own citizens. Afganistan was a theocratic dictatorship committing atrocities on people and engaging in global terrorism. Yes, the first invasion of Afganistan in 1980 was unjustified as that time Afganistan was a republic. Know, that illegal invasion too was done by USSR!

Here in case of Ukraine it is reverse , we have a democratic nation invaded by a dictator. Time will test us by standing with the wrong. And to compound that wrong, we have two of our known enemies on the same side. Irony.

Lot of talk on Sikhs and their bravery

Sikhism invokes profound respect being a modern forward looking faith encompassing values from hundreds of learned divinely elevated sources. A reformist movement indeed. Bravery et al are corollary of that. However, calling that we would have been occupied had we not have Sikhs guarding our front, is exaggeration for a geographical entity which has been under occupation for 80 percent of its existence having occupants primarily entering this region from north west , the region in focus. Hun, Kushan, Greeks, Central Asians all entered ( many times welcomed) and ruled for centuries over large chunk of geography we now call Indian boundaries. 

There is nothing to feel proud for our ancestors who might have been locals or outsiders who came in millions and stayed back. I would rather be neutral as they were doing their own bit as per what was required best for them at that time. Whole world was fragmented and barbaric as per standards of the present times. All were surviving for existence, power and money. Patriotism was only related to allegiance to the king or ruler. And king was God.